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     It is such a joy to live in Guatemala, and to have the privilege of participating in an ongoing spiritual tradition which has continued uninterrupted for five millennia.  I have met many Mayan priests, and have sometimes been asked by them, “What is all this about a Mayan Prophecy for 2012?” – for after all, even Mayan priests read newspapers and see the television now and then; so some of our kwashru (craziness) filters down to them.  I explain that it’s just New Age silliness by people exploiting the Mayan cachet to make money; not anything to take seriously. 

Unlike the self-appointed Mayan Prophecy “experts”, true Mayan priests (Ajk’ihab’ or daycounters) are chosen by the Mayan spirits themselves.  Then they study for decades under the tutelage of accomplished Ajk’ihab’s.  The Mayan priests whom I have met are very humble (most of them are subsistence maize farmers from the countryside), and yet they have a commanding presence.  When they put on their headbands and begin ceremonies they become filled with the Spirit (Ahau) and are completely self-effacing – not there, and yet utterly real and masterful in a way which makes most of our religious and spiritual leaders seem, by comparison, phony and ugly. 

      The point is that the Mayans (unlike the “experts”) are making a connection with the spirit world.  Connecting and communicating with the Mayan spirit world is an everyday part of Mayan life, just as the telephone and internet are for us.  This connection is made principally at Mayan ceremonies, where priests channel messages for participants and also perform healings. This connection is also made in daily life – by respecting the natural world and propitiating its guardian spirits. 

This is difficult for us First Worlders to understand, since we are so used to empty, formulaic church services which are basically just social functions.  Mayan ceremonies, on the other hand, are magical invocations in which spirits are contacted to obtain useful information and healings from the spirit world.  The spirits actually do come; their presence can be felt; and their answers are very right on.  For example, once during a ceremony my teacher, Don Abel Yat, stopped and told me, “You are about to have an enormous land problem.”  Sure enough, two weeks later a land dispute began which dragged on for the next three years and cost me a boodle of money and a lot of grief.  The point is that the predictions which are channeled by Mayan priests are very specific and to the point (not vague generalities). 

By contrast, this “2012 Prophecy” thing is being touted by the non-Mayan “experts” as a kind of New Age version of the Rapture: a miraculous transformation of human consciousness which sweeps humanity up into the Pleiades to escape the coming tribulation. But things don’t happen that way in real life.  If there is a fundamental transformation in human consciousness, the way it will probably occur is that the environment and civilization will deteriorate over the next few decades.  And in the crisis people will draw together and open their hearts to one another, as they do in the face of any natural catastrophe such as an earthquake or flood.  When people lose their faith in the system and start listening to their own hearts is when the system will change. 

Our society is in spiritual crisis.  We have a great deal more wealth and freedom of choice than the Mayans do, but to what end – to buy this instead of that?  To be robotic producer / consumers trapped in an endless spiral of insatiable desire?  Where our society has lost all sense of spiritual purpose, Mayan society has not.  The Mayans had the highest civilization in the New World at the time of the Spanish conquest, and they have maintained it in spite of five centuries of oppression and persecution.  Mayans possess the dignity of a people who know where they belong in the universe.  They have a sense of connectedness and rootedness which contrasts sharply with the empty materialism of our society.  Mayans know in their hearts that nature is sacred; they are capable of feeling awe and wonder; they are broken and humble.  Viewed through Mayan eyes, our behavior seems boorish, crass, and profane – utterly lacking in culture and manners. 

We can learn from the Mayans, not by mindlessly aping the outward shibboleths of their cultural traditions, but rather by taking a hard look at our own personal behavior and assumptions. If the human race is to survive the coming crunch, it is going to have to find some other way to motivate people besides capitalistic greed and selfishness; and it is going to have to provide people with a truer sense of connection to the divine than that which is offered by most conventional religions.  This is a more viable path for human salvation than silly, irresponsible “prophecies”, or the short-sighted avarice and pipe dreams offered by materialism.  This is the REAL Mayan Prophecy – what we really should be learning from the Mayans – which is found in the Christian Bible as well:  “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

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Don Abel Yat Saquib and Bob Makransky

About the Author:  Bob Makransky is a systems analyst, programmer, and professional astrologer.  For the past thirty-five years he has lived on a farm in highland Guatemala where he studies Mayan shamanism and astrology with his teacher Don Abel Yat Saquib and other K’ekchi and Quiche Mayan priests.  For more information on the Mayan calendar and astrology, download Bob’s free Mayan Horoscope software from:  http://www.dearbrutus.com/body_mayan_text.html.